Fix Compact Discs

Look closely at audio and CDROM discs. The bottom of the disc is simply clear plastic. As such, when a disc begins to skip or exhibit read errors, it may be necessary to repair it. The fix is easy, generally consisting of nothing more than smoothing the bottom surface and polishing it clean again.

The material at the disc’s surface is where the data is stored. In the case of CDR/RW, the top layer’s foil is where the laser ‘burns’ the material to store data. This is why you must always write on the disc with a felt-tip marker rather than a ballpoint pen.